2013 Theses Doctoral

The Vatican and the Making of the Atlantic Order, 1920-1960

Chamedes, Giuliana

Historians have traditionally paid little attention to the influence of institutional religion in shaping the international state system in the twentieth century. This dissertation attempts to fill the gap. It draws on newly released archival material to show how through diplomatic activism, theological innovation, and the centralization of Catholic associational life, the Vatican helped unite the fates of Western Europe and North America as never before.

Following its loss of the Papal States in 1870, the Vatican fought to regain influence on the European continent by pioneering a new form of treaty diplomacy and launching a transnational anticommunist campaign with broad appeal. These actions enabled the Vatican to seize a prominent place in European affairs, and integrate elements of its vision of state-society relations within the legal, economic and social framework of nearly a dozen European states. The Vatican's interwar gains led it to partner during World War II with the United States and Christian Democratic leaders, forging an alliance that would help sanction the continent's "democratic turn," contribute decisively to Europe's moral and material reconstruction, and lay the diplomatic and discursive foundations for the Cold War.